Review of Clinton email inquiry could undermine Mueller case
WASHINGTON – In early January, news that the Justice Department’s inspector general launched an investigation into the government’s disputed handling of the Hillary Clinton email inquiry was quickly overtaken by the chaotic run-up to President Trump’s inauguration.
Nearly a year later, Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s wide-ranging review of the FBI and Justice’s work in the politically charged Clinton case looms as a potential land mine for Russia special counsel Robert Mueller.
For months, Horowitz’s investigation — which has amassed interviews with former attorney general Loretta Lynch, former FBI director James Comey and other key officials — had been grinding on in near anonymity. Then this month, the inspector general acknowledged that Mueller was alerted to a cache of text messages exchanged between two FBI officials on his staff that disparaged Trump.
The communications, involving senior counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok and bureau lawyer Lisa Page, were gathered in the course of Horowitz’s internal review of the Clinton case, which Strzok helped oversee. Horowitz’s investigation is not examining Mueller’s operation, but the disclosures have provided a hammer to Trump loyalists who escalated their criticisms of the legitimacy of the special counsel’s inquiry.
This month, FBI Director Christopher Wray and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein highlighted the potential gravity of the inspector general’s work when they repeatedly urged Republican House committee members during separate hearings to withhold judgment about allegations of bias within the FBI until the internal Justice investigation is completed.
Justice officials have indicated a report is likely in the next few months.
“The inspector general’s investigation is very important,” House JudiciaChris
“It is very encouraging to us that (Horowitz) is doing what I think is good, unbiased work.” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va.
ry Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., told Rosenstein at a hearing Dec. 13. The deputy attorney general cited the inquiry multiple times as the reason for declining to respond to lawmakers’ questions about how the texts might affect Mueller’s investigation.
“It is very encouraging to us that (Horowitz) is doing what I think is good, unbiased work,” the chairman said.
Once it’s completed, the inspector general’s review could give opponents fodder to unleash fresh criticism of the FBI — which Trump has singled out in scathing rebukes since Mueller’s indictment of former national security adviser Michael Flynn this month. Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and pledged to cooperate with the special counsel, was the fourth Trump campaign official to be charged in the investigation into Russia’s alleged interference in the 2016 election.
Swecker, a former FBI assistant director, said the text communications unearthed by Horowitz handed leverage to attorneys representing current and possible future defendants in the Mueller investigation, either in possible plea negotiations or at trial.
“Two star witnesses have been created for the defense,” Swecker said, referring to Strzok and Page, whose communications could be introduced as evidence of an investigation biased against Trump. Strzok was removed from the Russia investigation this summer after Mueller was informed of the communications in which the agent described Trump as an “idiot” while expressing a clear preference for Clinton. Page had completed her temporary assignment to the Russia inquiry and had returned to bureau headquarters when the texts were discovered.
Swecker said Mueller acted appropriately in dismissing Strzok but fears the damage has been done.
“I never heard anything related to politics come out of (Mueller’s) mouth,” Swecker said, referring to his experience working closely with the special counsel when he served as FBI director.
“But none of this is good for Mueller or his reputation for fairness,” Swecker said. “Who knows what else the IG (inspector general) has.”
Mounting questions about the FBI’s credibility — including Trump’s jab that the bureau’s reputation was in “tatters” — have landed hard at the agency.
Wray, who took over in September after Trump dismissed Comey, publicly defended the bureau’s reputation in the wake of Trump’s attacks. He was joined late Tuesday by the FBI Agents Association, whose members issued a rare, collective defense of their own.
“Attacks on our character and demeaning comments about the FBI will not deter agents from continuing to do what we have always done — dedicate our lives to protecting the American people,” the group said in a statement.